Important caveat: I am not a research scientist! My body and home are my only laboratory and I have no control subjects. When I change something in my diet, other changes often coincide, whether a change in season or activity level or something else. That's why I started out by saying 'I follow nutritional research' rather than 'I research nutrition.' Yes, what I do is a species of research, but it's the compiling work of reading what others have written about their findings, as opposed to being in the crucible and witnessing in person.
I am not alone in this. Many of us are keenly interested in nutrition research, whether it's because we're trying to heal health challenges, lose weight, want to 'be right,' 'know the truth,' or simply find these amazing physical selves that we inhabit endlessly fascinating. New data are always coming to light, and the best sentence I've read recently about the whole arena is "If you aren't confused by health and nutrition information, then you haven't studied the subject long enough, or deeply enough." This sums it up beautifully.
I wrote recently about how some of my recent readings have been helping me to overcome my fear of carbs and others are prompting me to drastically reduce my intake of PUFA's, including 'friendly' omega-3's. Before I go into detail about those readings, I wanted to start a conversation about ground rules for nutritional research: to build a BS-meter, if you like. I'd love to hear your thoughts too, so please chime in. Here's what I have for starters:
1) Always understand the researcher's motivation/where they're coming from/who's paying them. This is a crucial point, and sadly banal to anyone who has dug deeper on certain very open-and-shut-looking studies, only to find that they are being funded by the industry that profits from sales of the food in question. However, when you're reading someone else's research, or testimony, or anecdotal evidence, you can never know all of their motivations. It's not only in the 'Arts' that emotions and interpersonal relationships can muddy the waters. It's not only in the blatant 'industry-funded' cases that you need to beware.
Another circumstance in which I have learned to be careful how literarily I take the findings presented is that of what might be called the quasi-religious evangelists. You've all come across them: the folks who were at death's door and had tried everything and were sick and depraved and deprived and obese and godless and cancerous and...and... And then they saw the light and attained salvation and became healthy and happy and lean and enlightened. And now everyone else must see that light too: because there can't be more than one 'right way,' right? So since I'm 'right,' you all must be 'wrong,' because I can't possible be wrong! I'm parodying slightly, and I admire such people their singleminded, monolithic conviction, especially if is has brought them ease, healing and good health.
However, I cannot believe and never have believed that there is the same road to salvation for everyone: we're all starting from different places to begin with, so how can there be? Of course, sometimes the saved-evangelists become sellers-of-products also, and then they're doubly to be doubted.
2) Always be aware of your own motivation/where you're coming from/who's 'paying' you
It's easy to assume that we're so openminded, we're always reading, researching... In fact, we might be more objective than the actual experimenters because we keep all the research before our eyes from all sources, rather than being pinned into one niche.
So I thought, and then my Naturopath suggested that the entity 'paying' for my research is an anorexic teenager who doesn't want to give up her kid-sized pants! Given my history of serially and totally demonizing every food group under the sun on the basis of research I've read, I have to admit he has a point. If I'm totally honest, I'm always reading to see 'will doing this make me lose weight?' whether it's appropriate for me or (actually) not. I'm never going to stop following the research, so for myself I just need to beware that that is a bias in my own reporting/evaluating.
3) Make sure you're comparing like with like
It sounds like common sense, but it's surprising how often this one is violated. If one study involved 10 obese women over a period of seven days relying on self-reporting and another study involved 300 lean young men over a period of six months in ward conditions, drawing major conclusions from the differences in the findings is tenuous, to say the least. And related to this:
4) Beware of short-term conclusions
It takes seven years for all the cells in your body to be changed over completely. The endocrine system works powerful forces in favor of 'status quo.' Both when reading research and when experimenting on yourself, don't dismiss something if it doesn't show 'instant results,' and by the same token, don't assume you've found the holy grail if huge results obtain within a week. Wait and see, and keep reading the research in the meantime.
5) If you look far enough, you'll find support for every dietary theory and its opposite, so don't get too attached and read both sides of the debate
This is back to Matt Stone's excellent comment above, and is why we need ground rules/bs meter in the first place. Similarly, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
6) When experimenting on yourself, listen to your body
Yes, this one's for me in particular but I know there are others out there. In fact, in the cleansing/fasting/purifying camp there's a certain heroism attached to going through horrendous 'detox' challenges that sound somewhat like biblical plagues, with a similarly biblical salvation at the end of it, at least as the stories go. But while acknowledging (with 4) above) that things take time, if something you're trying is making you feel awful continuously, consider that it may not be appropriate and that it might be time to do something different. Our bodies are so complex, the research is so fragmented and partial: you may not know everything that is going on and can sometimes do damage. Having read some more research on the 'other side' of the 'carbs are the devil' debate, it horrifies me that 'back then,' I persisted in my 'very low carb' experiment despite problems I was experiencing that are blatantly indicative of exacerbation of the thyroid/adrenal problems I had already. Especially considering that I was fairly lean to begin with, I did myself--and everyone around me--no favors at all.
Related to this, when self-experimenting, be aware of how suggestible your body is to what you've read. It's amazing how easy it is to persuade yourself that you're experiencing something as a result of eating a certain way if you read enough times that you should be! Disconcerting, actually: I don't know about you, but I don't feel like my interest in this subject is born of an urge to conform?!
7) Recognize your own contradictory beliefs and accept that similar are embodied in research
I hold contradictory beliefs. I'm perfectly comfortable believing that animal protein is highly beneficial in some bodies, and might even be so in mine. I also believe that eating it makes me feel sick, and I know that I don't want to eat it. I believe that wild meat is more 'natural' food than farmed meat and that my husband's killing and eating bears is participation in the local ecosystem, but I also believe that wild animals are subject to hardship (including disease, as many 'natural diet' advocates deny) and that well-cared-for farm animals can have a healthy, happy life, leaving aside the ethics of the endgame tradeoff. I no longer believe that 'fat makes you fat,' but I know that when bears are nearing hibernation, they will pound as much fat as they can obtain (although they have been known to raid freezers up here and take all the berries and disdain the meat)!
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| grey whale on our beach this summer, 'degloved' by orcas |
8) Celebrate diversity and keep exploring
This game never ends, but you might begin to discern general tendencies. You might even get a general idea of what 'works' in your body and why you think it does, why that makes sense. Just don't assume that what works for you is going to work for everyone else: life is far more fun than that!
This is just a start and I don't want to be too verbose on Sunday night. But I would love to hear others' thoughts, so please share! I will update this to reflect important additions.
much love
